Robot applications (sometimes called “bots” for short) are applications which may appear as a contact on one or more presence-based networks, have an ID (identification), presence, can be added to a contact list, and with which users can interact just as they would with other human users on the networks. Presence-based networks are those which define the availability and receptivity of contacts to engage in real-time communications. Today these robot applications are primarily found on instant messaging (“IM”) networks, but can be found on Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) and other presence-based networks.
Robot applications may contain detailed information (i.e., content) to answer users' questions, for example, about products, services, history, geography, or any other topic for which one of the robot applications has been programmed to discuss. Robot applications typically support the interactions with users by using locally available resources, or by accessing remote resources with which they may interact through application programming interfaces (“APIs”).
While robot applications are proving to be valuable sources of information for many users, finding them can often be difficult. For example, users today typically utilize one of the popular online search engines when looking to find information and answers about a particular topic of interest. But when users search for information and answers using search engines, the search results do not presently enable users to find, find and link to, or start an interaction with the content that is available from the robot applications.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.